The Working of Miracles | Pastor Jason McKinnies | Purpose House Church

I'm Jason McInnis, the pastor here at Purpose House Church. I want to thank you for joining our broadcast on the Pando app. We love you and we're praying for you. While you're standing, would you turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. If you're praying, you can continue to pray. We can do more than one thing at a time. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Let me know that Jesus is Lord. If you've never said that before, you need to say it. Jesus is Lord, and the only way you can say that is by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,

to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another, the working of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, discerning of Spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. And just for today, would you say amen to the Word of the Lord? Amen. You be seated in the house of God today. Last week, we talked about the gift of faith. How many of you have faith today? If you have faith, we talked about the four different kinds of faith. But last week, we talked very specifically about the gift of faith. It's a very specific Spirit-given confidence that God is about to act in a very specific way. This week, I wanna talk about what happens when God begins to move on you and you get that act of faith that God's gonna do something very specific. As a matter of fact, I would tell you today, I believe that Pastor Ed actually has the gift of faith today. While we were down worshiping, Pastor Ed began to express his heart to me about what he felt God was going to do

or what God was willing to do or the Spirit that was in the room that was just kinda overtaking this place, that he felt like God was going to act in a certain way. That's the gift of faith. Now, there's another level to that with the gift of faith and what God is going to do. Paul calls it, in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 12, the working of miracles. Anybody ever experienced a miracle before? It's just the working of miracles. Now, in the Greek, that working of miracles is just as layered as a few weeks ago when we got into the gifts, plural, of healings, plural. Now, this working of miracles and the gifts of healings is not a single word in the Greek. In the Greek here, the workings of miracles is a wonderful plural stacked on top of each other. It has multiple operations, multiple kinds of power, and it is distributed as the Spirit wills. So faith is what receives. Miracles are what gets released. Everybody good? What receives? Faith. And then what is released? Miracles. So how many of you had faith just a few moments ago? So faith is how it's received, and miracles is how it is released.

So I wanna just, as we have throughout this entire series, and I thank you all for the kind emails and text messages and stopping me in the hallways and telling me how much this series has helped you. This has been the best series on offerings and tithe that I have ever preached. Because that's what it was designed for, and we've got into the gifts of the Spirit in the middle of this. But this gift might be the one gift in the whole list that makes the most people happy. nervous because it is the one most associated with fakery. Every one of us have seen videos, heard a story, or caught somebody claiming this gift in order to manipulate a crowd or to manipulate their way into somebody's wallet. The history is real for sure and we've been dealing with that directly in every week of this series. But the existence of a counterfeit has never meant that the real thing isn't real. And can I also tell you that no one counterfeits something unless there is a real one. And so all the counterfeits of this gift, the gifts of miracles and the workings of miracles tells you that there is a genuine thing because no one counterfeits a currency that has no value. So we want to make sure we know what the genuine is and then when there is a counterfeit and we'll get into that throughout today. So let's start in Scripture. So when Scripture describes a miracle it usually doesn't reach just for one word. Peter was preaching at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and in Acts chapter 2 verse 22, you remember that 2 2 2, he says this, men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth a man attested by God to you. How was he attested by God to you? By miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know. So he says he did this is how God attested him through miracles, through wonders, and through signs. So there's three different Greek words being used there describing three

different angles of the same event. So the word miracles is the Greek word dynamis. It means power, raw ability to act. It's the same root that most preachers like to connect our English word dynamite. When a miracle happens it feels like dynamite. I would actually want to push back just a little bit on that definition because dynamite is used to destroy something. God's miracles are never destroying something. God's miracles are not demolition. Dynamis in Scripture always creates, it heals, it delivers, and it restores. Now we could say an argument way that when God does a miracle he is destroying the works of the devil for sure. But if God's not going to destroy something in you he's trying to create something in you. He's trying to heal. He's trying to restore or deliver you. So every miracle in the Bible is building something back up or it opens a way forward. It doesn't blow something apart just for an effect. So then there is the second word which is the word wonders. We have miracles. We have wonders. And teros is the word behind wonders. And it describes an emotional impact. It's the astonishment that a miracle produces in the people who witness it. How many of you when you witness a miracle or you were the recipient of the miracle you were just like wow that leg just grew back. That person just received their sight. The Cubs won the World Series. I actually have on an old Cubs jersey underneath this shirt. It was just a blank t-shirt. Every Cubs fan got the joke. The Cardinals fans we can't do that. We have lots of things on our shirts. If we win it again it'll be a wonder. Teros meaning the word behind wonder. The emotional impact. So a teros or a wonder is something that makes you stop, stare, and to struggle to process what you just saw. So when you see a miracle or a wonder it should make you stop, stare, and you're having a hard time trying to process what you just saw. Then there's the word signs. Simeon. It's the word behind signs and it might be the most important of the three words because a sign by definition points beyond itself. A sign was never meant to be the destination. Can I say that again to you? The sign was never meant to be the destination. We can say that tongues is a sign of the Holy Spirit in your life but it is not the destination. Coming to know

God in a greater revelation is why the sign is there. So many people, when you receive a prayer language, you stop in your development with Christ because you believe that the sign is the destination. Jesus Christ is the destination. You gotta continue to pursue God. And so whatever the signs are in your life, they are not the destination. Years ago, there was a movement in the Christian world of holy laughter, and people got to laughing, and they would take every church service and turn it into a holy laughter because it was a refreshment to their soul. They just got stopped with the sign instead of continuing to pursue God. So when you have a gift, the gift is not the destination. That's better than some of y'all would even realize. But we derail revivals because we get caught up in the signs. We need to get caught up in Jesus. Okay, so if we take those three words, let me just back up just a moment. So signs point beyond themselves, never meant to be the destination. A sign is meant to direct your attention somewhere else. How many of you like to read the gospel of John? If you read through the gospel of John, John's entire gospel is built around this Greek word teros. He calls Jesus's miracles signs

throughout the entire gospel, culminating in his own stated purpose. In John chapter 20, verse 31, he says, these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. So he's saying the miracle wasn't the point, it was that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ and he is the Son of God. So the miracle is pointing to the actual point that Jesus is the Son of God. Everybody good? So if you put all three of those words together, you get dynamis, simeon, and teros, you get a full picture, here it is. This is the McInnes Reader's Digest version of it. A miracle is power in action, it produces genuine astonishment, and it's always pointing towards something beyond itself. Lose any of those three, and you've lost the reason that the miracle happened in the first place. If all you wanna do is worship the miracle, you're worshiping the wrong thing. It is the point towards Christ. So let's go through the Bible and let's just talk about it. Last week, I wanted to prove to you that the gift of faith actually operated in the Old Testament, and the reason why I'm doing that is because we have a whole new generation of people that believe that somehow the gifts of the Spirit

and the Spirit itself has ceased. It was in the Old Testament, it was in the New Testament, it was in the book of Acts, and it's happening even today. The Holy Spirit has not ceased. Because God is the same. I'm glad this church knows the Word. So every miracle we've talked about in this entire season, this is week six, has happened to like one person, one family, or a small group of people, and then we kind of ended with Jehoshaphat and the gift of faith operating throughout the whole congregation. Today, I wanna start with a miracle that affected an entire nation all at once. It shows that the gift or the operation of miracles is scalable. Does everybody know what I mean by scalable? It can scale down to one person, it can go out to a group of people, and it also can scale to an entire nation. And the reason why I think that's important is I believe that America needs a miracle. So let's go with a nation. There's a nation called Israel. Everybody familiar with them? They're trapped, and Pharaoh's army is closing in behind them. There is a sea in front of them. They have nowhere to run, and Moses, according to the scripture in Exodus chapter 14,

verses 21 and 22, Moses doesn't say anything. In fact, it says that Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord, who did? The Lord, caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night. And he made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Now, notice the mechanism that scripture actually gives to us. He said, how did the miracle happen? It happened through a strong east wind all that night. It was not instantaneous. The miracle happened because the wind blew all night. Certainly, miracles can happen instantaneously. This miracle was building up all night long, and there was not a single spoken word, and all of a sudden, Moses lifts his hand out, and the sea starts to vanish. God used a natural force, a wind, sustained over hours to accomplish. something that the wind had never naturally accomplished before or to the best of my knowledge has not happened since. So a miracle doesn't require God to bypass the physical world entirely. He can use things in nature oh and he can use people. It doesn't have to be some sort of magic trick that God pulls out of his little hat and all of a sudden it happens because there are times that God begins to do things in your life and you've missed the moments that God is operating in your life and you just think it happened all at once. No it

didn't. God has been setting it in stages and in places. We could use it like this. God tipped one domino over and all kinds of other dominoes to the end result happen in your life and so there are times where we've missed giving God glory and praise because we thought it just happened but God had been orchestrating it across your whole life. So sometimes God works through ordinary forces pushed to an extraordinary degree for an extraordinary amount of time until the result winds up being unmistakable. You're like the wind has never done that before. Well with God behind that wind something unmistakable happened. Now notice who the miracle was for. It wasn't for one household. It was for an entire nation and they all crossed together all at once on the same dry ground. Some miracles in Scripture are deeply personal. Jesus heals one blind man, one bleeding woman that we talked about a few weeks ago. This one belongs to the whole nation of Israel. Simultaneously the working of miracles isn't limited to one individual's needs. Sometimes the entire church needs the seed open all at the same time and all to cross over together. So the miracle the working of miracles can be scalable. So we've come to believe that it only comes about when we lay hands on people. We get into the methodology. It can be it's scalable. Certainly it can happen when we lay hands on people but it can also happen however God chooses it to happen. So let's go to Jesus his first miracle. John calls the wedding at Cana in John chapter 2 verse 11 the beginning of signs. The first of these that Jesus would perform in John's gospel. He said now it's an unusual choice would you say for an opening miracle. He's at a wedding. He's a guest there. The opening miracle of Jesus is not a healing. It's not even raising somebody from the dead. It was at a wedding that was running out of wine which by any measure is a minor social embarrassment that today might be put on Facebook. You're like oh yeah that caterer stunk. They ran out of this or they ran out of that. But it was not a life-and-death crisis. It was just something small. John chapter 2 verses 7 through 9 Jesus said to them fill the water pots with water and they filled them up to the brim and he said to them draw some out now take it to the master of the feast and they took it

when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was now wine and did not know everybody say that did not know where it came from but the servants who had drawn the water they knew and he called the bridegroom and there's a conversation right there notice who knew what happened and who didn't know what happened the master of the feast had no idea that he was drinking a miracle he had no idea that they would run out of wine and that the water that turned into wine he had no idea that it happened there are times that you will get upset with people because they are not under the same revelation that you have about what just happened and you want them to worship and praise God over the miracle that you just experienced but they have no idea what happened they're just being a recipient of it thinking that it was wine the whole time and that you've always been healed so the bridegroom got undeserved credit and only the servants in this story the ones who had done the unglamorous work of hauling water and filling these jars up to the brim only they're the ones who actually saw the miracle happen because miracles don't always announce themselves to everybody in the room sometimes only the people who are doing ordinary obedient things to Christ get to see the miracle actually happen so I want to just say that to all of you in leadership in this church sometimes you know more about a story and you want to give God glory and you're so excited about it because you were doing obedience to God and serving in ministry you got to see the miracle and then you want to go out and then everybody else is just sitting there you're like why aren't y'all worshiping like I was working because they're not seeing the same thing that you saw a lot of times when we're just being obedient, we get to see the miracles happening. So the next time you're the one filling up the water pot, or the next time you're just serving obedience, just be expecting a miracle. Even if nobody else notices the miracle, make sure you notice the miracle, and just remember the words of Jesus to the servants,

just do what he says. Then we go back to the Old Testament. The working of miracles didn't start in the Gospels. We actually talked about one that happened in the second book of the Bible, Exodus. Now we come to 2 Kings, and we are introduced to a prophet by the name of Elisha, and Elisha's ministry is full of this operation of this gift. And I just wanna take two stories in particular to show the range, if you will, of the working of miracles. It opens up in the fourth chapter of 2 Kings. A widow comes to Elisha. Her husband is dead. A creditor, called the IRS, has come, and they're going to take her two sons as slaves for the unpaid debt. There's nothing left in her house, but a single jar of oil. Elisha tells her to borrow some empty vessels from all of her neighbors, not a few, not just a few, that's verse three, and pour her small jar of oil into these borrowed vessels. So she keeps pouring jar after borrowed jar until the Bible says that the oil ceased. Why did the oil cease? The only reason the oil ceased is because she ran out of empty containers, not because the oil ran out. It was because there was no more vessels to pour into. So then she takes all this oil, she sells the oil,

she pays her debt, and lives on what's left. Now the miracle in itself was genuinely supernatural. One jar of oil is filling dozens of borrowed vessels, but this miracle required something. It required action on the part of the woman first before the miracle would become present. There are many people in the modern Christian church that you want a miracle, and then you'll act. Most miracles require your action, and then the miracle will follow your action. Remember this, these signs shall follow them. And if you really believe, you'll act on it. So it required her action. She had to go gather the jars, she had to do the pouring, she had to believe enough to keep going and go ask her neighbors, not just for a few things, she's knocking on the doors of her neighbor asking for oil, and they're like, think about this conversation in the modern day. Why do you want a jar from me? Well, I'm gonna be pouring some oil into it, but just yesterday, you were at my house, and you told me you didn't have anything left in your house but one little jar of oil. See, sometimes you're gonna have to overcome the doubt of all the people that know your circumstances, and you're gonna have to have faith in what God has told you to do. So the same chapter later on, there's the prophet is now going to help a Shunammite woman

whose son has died suddenly. This is verses 18 through 37 of 2 Kings chapter four. Elisha goes to the boy who has died. He stretches himself out on the child's body. The boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes. Now notice, this miracle was not instant. It was not without effort. Elisha prayed, then Elisha acted. Then he waited, then he acted again. The miracle begins to unfold in stages, and the reason why I want to put this one in there is because we have now developed that if it doesn't happen when we think it should happen, then it didn't happen. And we had, I'm gonna try to tell the story to keep the guilty people guilty. We had a visiting minister here a few years ago in the old building, and they had a different way of praying for people. They had a different way of praying for people. I don't know what was wrong with the way he was praying with people, but somebody had a real issue with it. And because they would ask people, they would pray for them and they would say, are you feeling any better? And when people would say, well, I feel some better, he'd pray for them again and then say, are you feeling any better? And people took issue with that. When they lay hands on the sick, the sick should recover. Well, in this stage, Elisha prayed, he acted, he waited,

he prayed, he acted, and he waited. In other words, he didn't say, well, the boy didn't get up the first time I prayed for him. And what we would do in the modern church is we'd hang the guy because it didn't happen on the first time. Can I tell us that the pharisaical mindset of the church is the prevention of the working of miracles? Because it didn't happen the way we thought it should happen. And I told this story a couple of weeks ago, somebody invited Pastor Melissa and I out to dinner, told us it was just gonna be a cool dinner where they were just gonna hang out with us. us, no church issues whatsoever. And within five minutes they made themselves out to be a liar. And they were upset because on a Wednesday night service somebody had come into the building and they had a need. You could see physically the need. And one of the men in the church who's still sitting in this building today went up to the guy and prayed for him in a very unusual manner. And lo and behold the Lord healed the man. But the issue wasn't that the Lord healed the man, the issue was the unusual way in which the person prayed for the man. They took issue with how he was prayed for. And so they got all worked up about what, how it happened and then forgot to give God glory that it happened. Y'all mopping what I'm dropping? See that pharisaical mind said, well, we should just walk up and just gently lay hands on him. Sometimes as Smith Wigglesworth did, he punched the man who

had cancer in his stomach and punched the cancer out of the guy. Now, I just want to say to you, you better have heard from the Lord if you're going to punch somebody. The miracles sometimes unfold in stages. Can we just stop being God and allow God to do what God wants to do how God wants to do it? So two miracles here, two miracles, same chapter of the Bible, worked by the same prophet and neither miracle looked exactly like the other. That's the pattern of this gift throughout the scripture. It doesn't repeat itself in identical form. Why? Because if there were more than two people that got healed in the Bible by Jesus spitting in their eyes, we would be spitting on all of y'all when you walk in the building because somehow we had faith in the methodology and not in Jesus. We have method that we leave or if we spit on them and we rubbed dirt in their eyes. Now I know some of you want to do that and it ain't for healing. The methodology does not matter. The result and who it points to is what matters. Never repeats itself in identical form twice. Then we come back to the New Testament. Not every miracle in scripture is a life or death emergency. And again, I needed to put this in there because some people are like, why are you praying for that? That's so silly. Well, Jesus asked and had a miracle that happened for something that was not a life or death situation. I mean, I ride with Melissa and Zoe. I'm believing in miracles that you may not think are life or death situations, but to me, they are very much a life and death situation. So let me give you an example. Matthew 17, the tax collectors, the IRS again is involved. The tax collectors, actually this is the temple tax. The tax collectors asked Peter whether Jesus pays the temple tax. Jesus already knows the

conversation happened. This is a cool story. If you've never read this story, you should read it. And I'm going to come back to this just because I want to ask you a question. Jesus knows the conversation has happened between the temple tax IRS people and Peter. And before Peter even says a word about it, Jesus tells him, nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook and take the fish that comes up first. Now, let me just pause right there. First of all, Peter went in to talk to Jesus and Jesus interrupted Peter before Peter could ever talk. I just ask you in your prayer time, are you able to be interrupted by Jesus? Secondly, even if it is your profession, will you listen to Jesus if he tells you to do it differently? Because he is a, Peter is a professional fisherman and a professional fisherman did not use a hook and a line and a pole. He used nets. And Jesus tells the professional fisherman, I want you to fish differently for this miracle. I need you to do something that you normally would not do for this miracle to take place. Now, what we would do would be like, that ain't a word from God. Jesus tells him, take a hook and go down and fish. Can you imagine Peter walking down along the sea of Galilee and he's got a pole and his little tackle box in his hand and he's walking down there and everybody's like, Peter has done lost his mind. He's never fished this way before, but he's also not fishing for what he's normally fishing for. He takes the hook and Jesus says, take the first fish that comes up and when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Now, I know all of you right now believing for this. Come April the 13th, you're all going to be going down here to Crab Orchard Lake or to Wren Lake with a little pole and your tackle box to pay Pritzker. When you've

opened a mouth, you'll find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and for you. A coin and a fish's mouth, exactly enough to cover the tax bill for two people. Nobody's life was on the line. Nobody. was sick, nobody was drowning, nobody's trapped. God is attending to a routine. It's almost an administrative obligation with the same exact power that He heals the sick with. He's also taking care of an administrative need. There may be things in your life that may not qualify as some people needing a miracle, but in your life it's really important. And it just may be something mundane, but you can also ask God to help you and perform a miracle in your life to even pay your bills. So it's not just reserved for catastrophes. Sometimes shows up to cover the tax bill. God works in this because He cares for you. Now a few weeks ago we talked about this, about the fire, the wind, and a whisper, and about that still small voice that Elijah heard on Mount Horeb. But there was another mountain in Elijah's life, Mount Carmel, and it belongs in this category specifically, the working of miracles. Elijah stands alone on top of a mountain, 450 Cubs fans are up there, in resistance, 450 prophets of Baal, Elijah builds an altar, soaks it with water until it fills a trench around the entire base, and he prays one sentence in 1st Kings chapter 18 and verses 36 through 38. Here's his prayer. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now let's just look at this just from a perspective of not what we think we know about this story. The fire did not fall so that Elijah could win an argument for the sake of winning an argument. Look at that prayer again. He said, I need you to do this miracle that this people may know. To know what? To know that I am your child? No, that you are the Lord God. I need them to know, and that they have turned their hearts back again towards you. The miracle had a specific named purpose before it ever happened. The

reason he wanted the miracle was to turn their hearts back to God. Not to build his ministry. Not to go on TV and tell people, if you'll give me $138, I'll send you a bottle of my sweat. My sweat will not heal, but the name of Jesus will. Hey, so the miracle is very specific. Had a named purpose, and it wasn't repeated the next week for a bigger crowd. That's when we start getting into the all the fakery stuff. We got to repeat the same miracle over and over again, and next week a new crowd comes in, and if you'll just give in offering plans, and if you'll just give in all this, then God's gonna do a miracle. Listen, God is God, and God will do what he wills when he wills it. So it wasn't a display for Elijah's sake. It wasn't repeated the next week. It happened once for a reason, and then Elijah moved on to the next thing God had for him. So eventually that whisper that we talked about on the other mountain, that's what God had for him. So miracles and scriptures rarely, if never, repeat themselves as a spectacle. They happen exactly for the purpose in which God needs them to happen, and not once more. So when the miracle work gets counterfeited, let's talk about this. In Acts chapter 8, there's a man named Simon. If your name is Simon here, God bless you. It's my mom's maiden name. A man named Simon had practiced sorcery in Samaria, and he amazed the whole city with what he said, claiming that he was someone great. Acts chapter 8 verse 9. Philip comes preaching the gospel, and genuine miracles start happening because Philip is preaching the gospel. Simon believes, and he is baptized. Watch what happens, though, when he sees the apostles start laying hands on people, and they start receiving the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 8 verses 18 through 19. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Now, it may sound so innocent, right? But Peter, the Apostle Peter, rebukes him for it. It's a very sharp response. It's sharper than about anything you're going to read in the New Testament. Here's what he says. Your money perished with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.

verses 20 and through 23. So Simon wants the power without the purpose behind it. He wants the power for his own purposes. He had spent his whole life being the man people were amazed by and then he saw this gift as a bigger version of the same tricks he'd always been playing. It was something to acquire and control rather than something to steward for other people's benefits. This is where we get in trouble. We think that because God has gifted us that then there we need to be treated like we're gifted. No you need to treat the gift that God has given to you like it's something to be steward for other people's benefits. Okay so because now Simon wants to say okay I can take this gift and now people will be attracted to me. And that temptation didn't die with Simon, still happens. Anytime you're working in this gift and you start feeling like this makes you the center of attention rather than something that points people to God you're standing exactly where Simon stood. Now there's a second little thing that we need to talk about that's probably even more unsettling than Simon because it isn't about a fraud with no real power at all. It's actually about people who possess power that's genuinely real but pointed in the wrong direction. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13 let me read it to you. If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams he gives you a sign or a wonder. He gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes to pass. It comes to pass. Of which he spoke to you saying let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. And here's what people say hey but he said what he said came to pass and he possessed his power. But what's his message? If his message is let us go serve other gods then you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul. So if it leads you away from God don't follow it. And we have too many people chasing signs. You have it biblically backwards. These signs shall follow them that believe. That believe what? That believe that Jesus Christ is the Christ. And if you believe that he is

the Christ then these signs will follow you. But you're following after a sign. And may I say that that's why the church keeps getting tripped up is you're chasing the wrong thing. If you'll go after God hard the miracles will be easy. Now if it leads you away. So now listen Paul even warned us of this in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9. And in a few weeks you can ask Pete all these questions. Listen to this. Paul warns that the lawless one will come with all power and signs. And look at that. And lying wonders. Not fake wonders. They are wonders. He's just lying. He's doing powerful things but he's telling you that he's the one that deserves all the worship and the glory and the honor. Worship me. So they're lying wonders. Not fake at all. They're going to happen. But God's wanting to know will you love him more than you love the wonder. Scripture doesn't promise that every counterfeit is going to be like this obvious magic trick. You're like oh yeah that's obvious. No you got to be careful what you're following. Be careful who you're following. Remember what Paul said. Follow me as I what? How many of you have been through membership here? Pastor Melissa actually tells you to write this on the paper. Does she not? We want you absolutely to follow Pastor Melissa as we follow Christ. And you won't know when we stop following Christ unless you know his word. Okay so the gift in the operation of miracles here for a very specific reason. There's an ultimate purpose. Whether it's oil multiplying in a widow's house, water turning into wine at a wedding, all of them are pointing towards God. Not the person who it worked through. That's why John kept calling them signs. A sign that people start staring at instead of following has failed to do its job. How many of you when you're driving down the interstate and you see a mileage sign that says let's say Denver. 350 miles. You're like we've arrived. And you get out. Oh let me let me embarrass my mother. How many of you when you get to a new state you stop the car, you get all your family out, and you all pile out by the state sign and You've been asleep, all the kids have been asleep for hours, and you're like, let's get out and take a picture next to the sign.

And everybody's standing there, welcome to colorful Colorado. Did you get in the car and, Mama Helen has been warning me for two, she's like, you're gonna get hit in the head. Did you get in the car and say, we're gonna go back home now, we saw the sign. We got a picture with the sign. Look, we were in Colorado. No, you gotta cross over the line and go enjoy it to actually see what it all has to offer. And there's so many people, we get stopped at the sign, and we're like, hey, listen, I met Jesus, but how are you following Jesus? Are you experiencing everything that Jesus has? Don't get caught up with the signs. And may I tell you that you also are a sign. And if all the attention is on you and people stop with you, and whatever they're reading in you, they're determining whether or not they wanna see Jesus or not. And if you're not doing your job properly, they'll never follow Christ. So miracles are there on purpose. And it scales to whoever needs it, from one nation to a single tax bill. So don't assume that it's just reserved for national emergencies, reserved only for administrative inconveniences.

If you need a miracle, you have a God who specializes in miracles. And a miracle should always survive the test of where it points. Real power that leads people away from God fails that test dramatically. So I wanna challenge you with something today. How many of you, when you say you had a miracle, you've stopped talking about the miracle? See, what happens is, is God does something in our lives, other people weren't there when it happened. They start doubting what you're saying, and then you stop talking about it. Can I tell you that miracles really happen when we start going into the world and preaching? Can I tell you the best sermon you'll ever preach is your personal testimony? I don't preach like Pastor Pete, I don't preach like Pastor Ed, I don't preach like, good. You need to preach your sermon. Yeah, that's right. And so many people say, I wanna see miracles in the church. Can I tell you that most miracles will not happen in the church? Because we're all believers in here. And I told you this a few weeks ago, when people asked me, how can you still preach this stuff when God didn't heal your dad?

I believe in God before my dad got cancer, while my dad had cancer, and after he died of it. It isn't gonna change what I believe. But there are other people who need a miracle in order to come to believe. So let's just read real quick. This is John Gordon's favorite passage of scripture. Mark 16, verses 15 to 18. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. These signs will follow those who believe. In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up serpents, not in church. And if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. And they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Now, where was that all put into? He put this whole litany of things about signs and miracles and wonders happening when he commissioned the church to go. So every sign in that list, tongues, protection from poison, serpents, healing hands, they show up in the same breath that he's saying, go. The modern church says, I don't wanna go, I wanna come to church, and I want the miracles to come to where I'm at. Jesus said, if you want miracles and signs, they will follow you where? As you go, as you're out in the highways and the byways,

and you're giving your testimony, you're talking about Jesus, he will confirm his word and what he's done in your life with signs that follow you. Why? To show the people who do not believe that he is the Lord God. And what we've done in the church is we say, everybody in the church is saved and everybody's healed and everybody's already been delivered. And I wonder why there's no healings. And I wonder why there's no deliverance, because we're in church. That pastor don't believe in anything. It's supposed to happen behind you. You remember when everybody's healed, why would he need to be a healer? If everybody's delivered, why would he need to be the deliverer? If everybody's saved, why does he need to be the savior? It happens out there. And what we've done is we've said, everything needs to happen within the four walls of Purpose House. No, it doesn't. It needs to happen in the streets of Heron, and in the streets of Marion, and the streets of Murfreesboro, and the streets of... Streets of Carbondale, and the streets of Johnson City, and the streets of West Frankfort.

Do you not think, listen, all of us, we need a revival in our cities and in our schools, and you want it to happen in the church? No, you build the church by having revival in the streets. So let me just say it like this. These signs were never given so a room full of people who already believed could watch one happen. We want everybody to be spectators. This is a participation sport. They're given to confirm the message to the people who don't believe yet. And trace the working of miracles through the whole book of Acts, you'll notice the same pattern holding up. The miracles start happening around evangelism, in front of unbelievers, not crowds of gathering people who are already convinced of who Jesus is. The wilderness generation, those people in the book of Exodus, saw more sustained, daily, undeniable miracles than any other generation in the Bible. The sea parted in front of them, manna fell from heaven every single morning for 40 years. For 40 years. My song leader growing up as a kid used to talk about their shoe leather didn't wear out, their clothes didn't wear out, they had miracles every morning. A cloud led them by day, a fire led them by night. When the ground opened, it swallowed up the rebels among,

they watched it happen with their own eyes. When poisonous snakes attacked their camp, God gave them a miraculous means of healing right in front of everybody's eyes, and yet they were a faithless generation. Miracles do not produce faith, faith produces miracles. So if you're watching for the miraculous and saying, that's the only way my faith is gonna be built, may I tell you that you are biblically incorrect. The wilderness generation, if that were the case, they should have had unshakable faith. Instead, scripture actually tells us where faith comes from. Romans chapter 10, verse 17, faith comes by hearing. I wanna see a miracle, that's not gonna build your faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith does not come by seeing, for we walk by faith. And not by sight. Faith comes by hearing, so for you and me, growth in faith was never going to come down primarily from watching something unexplainable happen in a church service. It comes from the one thing that most Christians lack, and that is the discipline to get into the word. Can I tell you, just as Pastor Jason, that when you have a disagreement here, or you've been exposed for a sin in your life, that is not a time to run, that is actually an opportunity to be disciplined, be a disciple of Jesus, and get into the word. And then your faith will come

by hearing the word of the Lord. And then as you operate in the faith that you have by reading, and studying, and hearing the word of the Lord, your life will radically change, and we will see a miracle happen in you, because you've heard the word of the Lord. See, every miracle is not an arm growing, or sight being restored. Sometimes a miracle is that you're not the same person that you were at the beginning of the week. So if you want to see the gift of miracles, the operation of miracles more in the church, I would ask you to get involved outside of this church. You're waiting for a spectacle to happen, and God's waiting for you to have a participation in the action of evangelism, so his miracles, and signs, and wonders can follow you when you believe. See, y'all were expecting a healing service. Really, if you want the operation of the gift of miracles, and the working of miracles, we probably should have a repentance service. Lord, forgive me that I've desired a spectacle, and I've wanted the spectacle to be the operation of evangelism, instead of me being the evangelist, and operating in this gift. Oh, how are they ever gonna believe? It's just me from Cambria. They'll believe when a snake bites you,

and you shake it off in the fire, and you live. Right, Paul, and the island of Malta? See, we got so caught up in the actions of church, that we have forgotten that we are the church. So, if God has worked a miracle, this is my challenge for you this week. God has worked a miracle in your life, and I saw just about every hand go up. Most of you are still in the room, a few of you think the Chick-fil-A is open. But if God has worked a miracle in your life, something you have no natural explanation for, I want you to do what the servants at the wedding never got the chance to do publicly. They never got to tell the host of the wedding what had happened. But you have an opportunity now to tell somebody this week, not to build your own reputation, but to build up Jesus, that this is what the Lord did for me. Can I just say that you're all sitting in a miracle? Through your generosity and God blessing your finances, you then taking your finances, paying your taxes to the church, if you will, God took and did in three and a half years what most churches cannot accomplish in 30, being in a debt-free building. So just a few moments ago I asked you, have you ever experienced a miracle? How many of you raised your hand? Have you experienced a miracle? Me standing here today is a miracle. You being here is a miracle. All of us being joined together is a miracle. Say, ah, God doesn't do miracles. Yeah, He does. Oh yeah, He does miracles. And how do we overcome the one who wants to show up with lying wonders? We overcome Him by the word of our testimony. And the reason why we have a testimony is because of the blood of the Lamb.

And what the blood has done in your life is the greatest miracle you'll ever experience in your life. It's because of the blood of Christ that I have a testimony that I have overcome. I am not the man that I was supposed to be. And I'm not the man that I was born to be. I am now the man because I've been born again. So if you've been born again, you've experienced a miracle in your life. So here's what I want to do. Pastor Ed had the gift of faith just a little while ago, and I felt it so strongly that Pastor Melissa was going, I was trying to throw another quarter into the jukebox and just let her go. What I mean by that, I meant the glory of the Lord was in this room. That if you were sick in your body, you could be healed. That if there was something that the enemy had stolen from you, that you could recover it. See, we get cut off, we're not in the same emotional state. Emotions have nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with the word of God. And he said, we can lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So is there anybody in the room that the enemy has stolen from you and you need to recover it? If that's you, I'd like for you to stand right now. He has stolen from you. See, the Bible says that when the enemy be found, he has to restore to you seven times what he has stolen from you. So if he has stolen your joy, he has to return it seven times to you. If he has stolen your health, he has to restore it to you seven times. We know who's stealing from you. So right now, Jesus, may every person who is standing in front of me, may they recover. May they recover their health.

May they recover their bodies. May they recover their marriages. May they recover their strength right now in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, for your glory and for your namesake, would you heal them? Would you touch them? And would you stop the stealing that's happening in their life? In Jesus' name. God's people then said, we learned last week, right? That's something we can build on.